Stone Monuments
The Stone Monuments are inscribed tablets, seemingly telling bits of a story or legend, found all around and inside the Underwater Ruins of Mo'ia Atoll. There are six tablets in all. When the player observes them, Katherine will come over the radio and give her commentary on them. At first, she is mystified, as she has every right to be; however, after observing all six monuments at least once, and retrieving all of the pieces of the Inscribed Nephrite, she and the player can partially decode them, with the help of someone called upon by Alfred Thorman - an archaeologist named George Mueller, who offers analyses of each monument separately over email. In-Game Dialogue After the player has explored the Ruins at least a little, Kat will approach them and say: "There were stone monuments in the Mo'ia Atoll Ruins, right? We should try to decipher the inscriptions on them. If we could read the words, we'd be closer to unlocking the mysteries of the Ruins. Keep checking those monuments! There must be something there." Before the writing on the stones is decoded, and before they've been analyzed, Katherine's short descriptor of each stone at the following locations is as follows: * E-5, found inside the ruins: "That looks like a stone monument with writing engraved on it! What a strange-looking script." * E-6, near the Room of Oracles: "That looks like a stone monument with writing engraved on it! Let's see… It looks like a sea chart." * I-3, underneath the archway there: "That looks like a stone monument with writing engraved on it! It looks really old. I wonder how long ago it was carved." * H-5, at the end of the short tunnel at the bottom of Central Hall: "That looks like a stone monument with writing engraved on it! I have no idea what language it could be." * G-4, at the end of a short tunnel near the hallway-like structures to the Northwest of the Ruins: "That looks like a stone monument with writing engraved on it! I don't know what it's made of. I've never seen this material before." * H-7, inside of the Prince's Room: "That looks like a stone monument with writing engraved on it! There's a crest of a snake with...seven heads? Maybe? I dunno...it's hard to tell." After each of the stones has been analyzed and decoded, her descriptors change, and offer more information as well as a short snippet of the text: * E-5: "That looks like a monument with writing engraved on it! According to our analysis, the language is unknown. 'The anger of ancient ones brought flood to the white king of the seven tribes.' ...Yeah, that's all we can understand." * E-6: "That looks like a monument with writing engraved on it! According to our analysis, it's a chart of the South Pacific. 'The king, proof in hand, fought the flood god with the storm god by his side.'...Yeah, that's all we can understand." * I-3: "That looks like a monument with writing engraved on it! According to our analysis, it's between 5,000 and 10,000 years old. 'Final days. The king gave a gem to the dark one and ordered him to follow the princess.'...Yeah, that's all we can understand." * H-5: "That looks like a monument with writing engraved on it! According to our analysis, the script resembles writing from the South Pacific. 'Final days. The king gave a bracelet to the white one and ordered him to follow the prince.'...Yeah, that's all we can understand," * G-4: "That looks like a monument with writing engraved on it! According to our analysis, the stone is quartz diorite. 'Eternal sleep covers the earth. These are our kingdom's final days.'...Yeah, that's all we can understand." * H-7: "That looks like a monument with writing engraved on it! According to our analysis, the snake with seven heads is a royal crest. 'The king...defeated. The city...flooded. His descendants built a new city to the west.' ...Yeah, that's all we can understand." Emails Before the player gets an analysis of the stones, Alfred Thorman sends them an email regarding the archaeologist he's contacted: "Subject: Archaeological Survey From: Alfred Thorman As I mentioned previously, I have contacted an archaeological authority to assist in our investigation. He's an archaeology researcher from Pelago's own university by the name of George Mueller. I hope he can help unravel the mystery of those ruins. Katherine also informed me about the stone that you found. If it truly contains envraged letters of some sort, that could be a very important find. Please look into that soon. ''-Alfred Thorman"'' The archaeologist Gregor Mueller sends the player an email regarding each of the stones specifically. Regarding the stone at coordinates E-5: "Subject: Analysis: ruins entrance stone From: Pelago University Dept. of Archaeology Gregor Mueller Analysis: Ah, an unknown language! I am reminded of the time we discovered the Rongorongo language of Easter Island. finding unknown scripts is not particularly unusual, but the level of refinement on this one is. Unlike hieroglyphic characters found throughout Micronesia and Polynesia, this system uses a lot of curved lines, indicating a highly evolved system of phonetic symbols. Truly fascinating!" Regarding the stone at coordinates E-6: "Subject: Analysis: Stone near the temple From: Pelago University Dept. of Archaeology Gregor Mueller Analysis: We believe the diagram portion is some sort of map, but the true nature of the map is somewhat elusive. The skilled sea voyagers of ancient Micronesia are known to have created incredibly accurate sea charts, adn this map generally represents the Pacific Ocean as we know it. The exception is the addition of an extra triangular continent...what could that be?" Regarding the stone at coordinates I-3: "Subject: Analysis: Archstone From: Pelago University Dept. of Archaeology Gregor Mueller Analysis: Our dating of the sample revealed startling results. Tests show that the engraving on this stone was implemented somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 years ago. Dating undersea artifacts can be a tricky process. In fact, I think our initial estimate put the stone at 200 to 300 years old. I think it's safe to say that we were a little bit off!" Regarding the stone at coordinates H-5: "Subject: Central hall stone From: Pelago University Dept. of Archaeology Gregor Mueller Analysis: The engravings in this stone show a number of similarities to the Woleaian dialect of the Caroline islands. However, it is by no means a perfect match. In fact, this piece reminds me of the Rosetta stone in terms of complex qualities of language and characters. What an exciting find!" Regarding the stone at coordinates G-4: "Subject: Analysis: Cave stone From: Pelago University Dept. of Archaeology Gregor Mueller Analysis: The script is unidentifiable due to extreme weathering, but the stone composition has been identified as quartz diorite. This rock is not native to the South Pacific, which suggests that it may have been transported over a great distance. The method of transportation is unknown at this time. I love science, don't you?!" Regarding the stone at coordinates H-7: "Subject: Stone from the ruins From: Pelago University Dept. of Archaeology Gregor Mueller Analysis: The crest with the seven-headed snake has been known since ancient times to be a sign of Pelago royalty. This stone could be an important clue to the history of the Pelago people!" Gallery Stone Monument Ruins Arch I-3.png|The monument at coordinates I-3. Stone Monument Room of Oracles E-6.png|The monument at coordinates E-6. Stone Monument Prince's Room H-7.png|The monument at coordinates H-7. Stone Monument Outer Ruins G-4.png|The monument at coordinates G-4. Stone Monument Inside the Ruins E-5.png|The monument at coordinates E-5. Stone Monument Central Hall H-5.png|The monument at coordinates H-5. Category:Landmarks Category:Manoa Lai Category:Ruins Category:Lore Category:Mo'ia Atoll